# Quote — Chang Ha-Joon, Bad Samaritans

> I have a six-year-old son. His name is Jin-Gyu. He lives off me, yet he is quite capable of making a living. I pay for his lodging, food, education and health care. But millions of children of his age already have jobs. Daniel Defoe, in the 18th century, thought that children could earn a living from the age of four.
>
> Moreover, working might do Jin-Gyu's character a world of good. Right now he lives in an economic bubble with no sense of the value of money. He has zero appreciation of the efforts his mother and I make on his behalf, subsidizing his idle existence and cocooning him from harsh reality. He is over-protected and needs to be exposed to competition, so that he can become a more productive person. Thinking about it, the more competition he is exposed to and the sooner this is done, the better it will be for his future development. It will whip him into a mentality that is ready for hard work. I should make him quit school and get a job. Perhaps I could move to a country where child labour is still tolerated, if not legal, to give him more choice in employment.

- Author: [Chang Ha-Joon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon.md)
- Book: [Bad Samaritans](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans.md)
- Page: 65
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ha-Joon_Chang#Bad_Samaritans:_The_Myth_of_Free_Trade_and_the_Secret_History_of_Capitalism_(2008)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/i-have-a-six-year-old

## More from this book

> Markets have a strong tendency to reinforce the status quo. The free market dictates that countries stick to what they are already good at. Stated bluntly, this means that poor countries are supposed to continue with their current engagement in low-productivity activities. But their engagement in those activities is exactly what makes them poor. If they want to leave poverty behind, they have to defy the market and do the more difficult things that bring them higher incomes—there are no two ways about it.

p. 210 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/markets-have-a-strong.md)

> Countries are poor not because their people are lazy; their people are 'lazy' because they are poor.

p. 18 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/countries-are-poor.md)

> Manufacturing is the most important...route to prosperity.

p. 215 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/manufacturing-is-the.md)